Need help designing a few enemies in my campaign

[Carden-Gix'oth]

So, as the title says, I need some help designing some enemies for my campaign. It's mainly dragon focused, as the party has been tasked with taking down the Cult of the Dragon. They're in a small homebrewed village about 2 week's ride from Darkhold right now. And I got it in my head that a tribe of Half-Dragon Werewolves would be a lot of fun for them to fight. A layer of challenge with their DR, and the dragon part ties into a lot of the bonuses the party has.


The party is all level 11. Some ECL 11 (there's an Aasimar and a Celadrin in the party). A werewolf is CR3 base, and the leader of the tribe is going to be a Werewolf Lord, because duh.

My thoughts were a powerful Half-Dragon Werewolf spreading his (or her, not sure yet) curse, so most of the werewolves will be Afflicted, not Natural, giving the party the option to cure them.

My question is this: Should I make the Werewolves by hand, or use the statblock?

A base Werewolf by statblock is CR 3, and adding Half-Dragon on top is gonna be CR 5. The Werewolf Lord will be a CR 17 boss for a party of 6 level 11 PCs:
Aasimar Paladin/Monk/Sacred Fist
Human Dragonfire Adept
Human Rogue
Celadrin Sorcerer/Fire Mage (Frost Mage PrC, but reflavored for Fire, cause he wanted to be a Pyromancer)
Undecided Caster (working with him this week)
Undecided Character (Working with him this week also)

EDIT: Not all of the regular Afflicted Werewolves will be Half-Dragons. Some will be, maybe. The Werewolf Lord definitely will be a Half-Dragon.

[Particle_Man]

It might be fun to add a dragon shaman to the werewolves.

[Carden-Gix'oth]

It might be fun to add a dragon shaman to the werewolves.

That could be a lot of fun. Maybe 3 Natural Werewolves, one being the Lord, and 1 being a Dragon Shaman and one being, say a Barbarian or something along those lines furthering the Cult in their own way? Giving me ideas, Particle_Man....

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Are there neighbors? Afflicted werewolf ogres would make it a bit more interesting.

A Werewolf Lord is just a Fighter 10 and replaces Wolf with Dire Wolf. You could make it a Warshaper 4/ Warblade 6 instead, it would have up to 3rd level maneuvers/stances at Warblade 1 and 6th level maneuvers/stances at its current level. That gets it tiger claw boosts, Iron Heart Surge, white raven charges, plus all the Warshaper goodies, and only loses one point of BAB which doesn't cost it an iterative attack. Maybe swap two Warbalde levels for (unarmed) Swordsage for better unarmored AC. Also consider giving it Rapidstrike for its claw attacks.

[Carden-Gix'oth]

Are there neighbors? Afflicted werewolf ogres would make it a bit more interesting.

A Werewolf Lord is just a Fighter 10 and replaces Wolf with Dire Wolf. You could make it a Warshaper 4/ Warblade 6 instead, it would have up to 3rd level maneuvers/stances at Warblade 1 and 6th level maneuvers/stances at its current level. That gets it tiger claw boosts, Iron Heart Surge, white raven charges, plus all the Warshaper goodies, and only loses one point of BAB which doesn't cost it an iterative attack. Maybe swap two Warbalde levels for (unarmed) Swordsage for better unarmored AC. Also consider giving it Rapidstrike for its claw attacks.

The town they're in is about 2 week's ride from Darkhold. The town is situated on the southeastern side of the Reaching Woods. So the neighbors consist of Hobgoblins, centaurs, hybsils, satyrs, goblinoids, humans, elves, goblins, and gnolls.

EDIT: Friggin typos

[aglondier]

I'm always in favour of throwing in a shapeshifted blue dragon damsel-in-distress, whose plan is to use the heroes rescue of her as an in to the local nobility, the best of whom she will marry and gradually usurp the power and authority of. If a party member is nobility, she might even aim at him. Makes for a great final boss down the track, and in the meantime she uses the party to destroy her cult rivals assets and minions. Her own cult minions slip into positions of support and become allies and informants to aid the PCs.
I don't remember 3.5 having anything like it, but pathfinder has a 1st level sor/wiz spell Celestial Healing. It gives the recipient Fast Healing 1, but more importantly, it also gives them an aura of goodness. A very cheap level 1 item would grant her minions an aura of goodness that would keep the attention of paladins well away from her people, and herself.

Let the players strike against the more visible factions of the cult (red, black, green, even white), while cataloging their efforts on behalf of the blue. At the end, the look on their faces when they realise their actions were instrumental in the kingdoms downfall should be priceless...

[Maat Mons]

Is the Half-Dragon-ness meant to be inflicted as part of the Lycanthropy? Because I'm pretty sure that's impossible by RAW. Since Half-Dragon changes a creature's type, it becomes ineligible for either half of the Lycanthrope template. So you'd need to apply Half-Dragon after Lycanthrope, which means the Lycanthropy has to be inherited.

If you're not going to stick to RAW, I suggest just homebrewing a Were Dragon template of your own design. Basically, just take the Lycanthrope Template, cross out all instances of "animal," and replace them with "dragon," then make whatever adjustments seem warranted.

[daremetoidareyo]

Is the Half-Dragon-ness meant to be inflicted as part of the Lycanthropy? Because I'm pretty sure that's impossible by RAW. Since Half-Dragon changes a creature's type, it becomes ineligible for either half of the Lycanthrope template. So you'd need to apply Half-Dragon after Lycanthrope, which means the Lycanthropy has to be inherited.

If you're not going to stick to RAW, I suggest just homebrewing a Were Dragon template of your own design. Basically, just take the Lycanthrope Template, cross out all instances of "animal," and replace them with "dragon," then make whatever adjustments seem warranted.

I mean, maybe what that means is that dragon DNA figured out how to hitch onto the lycanthropy virus

it's a breakthrough of evolution!

And it's a bangarang plot hook! This tribe of werewolves are spreading this dragon disease, on purpose to do the bidding of the cause of whatever major dragon feud is going on. "Did you hear the news about the village outside of darkholm? They all got turned into dragonwolves of tiamat now. They seem happy, so that's nice. But it's definitely dire days for the rest of us wanting to get crunked while pastoralizing."

Bahamut, one step behind as ever, decides to make the vampyro-dragon. The only LA 0 undead platinum dragon race capable of battling this werewolf menace. The days looked grim, until the stories of a half-werebear/half vampyro dragon, that is a vampyrodragon of bahamut who just laid a bunch of eggs and those eggs were scratched by a chaotic good werebear on the run from the dragonwolves.

[Carden-Gix'oth]

I'm always in favour of throwing in a shapeshifted blue dragon damsel-in-distress, whose plan is to use the heroes rescue of her as an in to the local nobility, the best of whom she will marry and gradually usurp the power and authority of. If a party member is nobility, she might even aim at him. Makes for a great final boss down the track, and in the meantime she uses the party to destroy her cult rivals assets and minions. Her own cult minions slip into positions of support and become allies and informants to aid the PCs.
I don't remember 3.5 having anything like it, but pathfinder has a 1st level sor/wiz spell Celestial Healing. It gives the recipient Fast Healing 1, but more importantly, it also gives them an aura of goodness. A very cheap level 1 item would grant her minions an aura of goodness that would keep the attention of paladins well away from her people, and herself.

Let the players strike against the more visible factions of the cult (red, black, green, even white), while cataloging their efforts on behalf of the blue. At the end, the look on their faces when they realise their actions were instrumental in the kingdoms downfall should be priceless...

See, I like this, but we have a Paladin, so Detect Evil for free, and he uses it constantly. Also, they're on basically a crusade. But I'm definitely filing this away for later use. Thank you

[Carden-Gix'oth]

Is the Half-Dragon-ness meant to be inflicted as part of the Lycanthropy? Because I'm pretty sure that's impossible by RAW. Since Half-Dragon changes a creature's type, it becomes ineligible for either half of the Lycanthrope template. So you'd need to apply Half-Dragon after Lycanthrope, which means the Lycanthropy has to be inherited.

If you're not going to stick to RAW, I suggest just homebrewing a Were Dragon template of your own design. Basically, just take the Lycanthrope Template, cross out all instances of "animal," and replace them with "dragon," then make whatever adjustments seem warranted.

Silver Dragons breed with humans a lot, so having an entire town of Half-Silver dragons isn't out of the question. Not to mention the
Silverbrow Human (silver dragon)
Deepwyrm Drow and Half-Drow (deep dragon)
Fireblood Dwarves (red dragon)
Forestlord Elves and Half-Elves (green dragon)
Stonehunter Gnomes (copper dragon)
Glimmerskin Halflings (gold dragon)
Viletooth Lizardfolk (black dragon)
Sunscorch Hobgoblins (blue dragon)
Frostblood Orcs and Half-Orcs (white dragon)

But, I was thinking leaving the Half-Dragons for the bosses, mainly, as that's a massive boost in power. I'm also tying this entire area into the Paladin's backstory, as we're on his arc. He's gonna have to make some hard decisions, and luckily he has friends to help.

[Carden-Gix'oth]

I mean, maybe what that means is that dragon DNA figured out how to hitch onto the lycanthropy virus

it's a breakthrough of evolution!

And it's a bangarang plot hook! This tribe of werewolves are spreading this dragon disease, on purpose to do the bidding of the cause of whatever major dragon feud is going on. "Did you hear the news about the village outside of darkholm? They all got turned into dragonwolves of tiamat now. They seem happy, so that's nice. But it's definitely dire days for the rest of us wanting to get crunked while pastoralizing."

Bahamut, one step behind as ever, decides to make the vampyro-dragon. The only LA 0 undead platinum dragon race capable of battling this werewolf menace. The days looked grim, until the stories of a half-werebear/half vampyro dragon, that is a vampyrodragon of bahamut who just laid a bunch of eggs and those eggs were scratched by a chaotic good werebear on the run from the dragonwolves.

This is absurd in the best of ways. A bit too far out there for this campaign, but I'm filing this away for later.

[sreservoir]

See, I like this, but we have a Paladin, so Detect Evil for free, and he uses it constantly. Also, they're on basically a crusade. But I'm definitely filing this away for later use. Thank you

Undetectable Alignment (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/undetectableAlignment.htm) last 24 hours, is a 2nd-level spell on the cleric list for a blue dragon to learn, and a cheap 1st-level bard scroll at 50 gp a pop. Outside of Core, it's also available at CL 1 from the beguiler and dread necromancer lists. Anyone in a position to threaten an ECL 11 party can easily afford to avoid pinging on Detect Evil

[Carden-Gix'oth]

Undetectable Alignment (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/undetectableAlignment.htm) last 24 hours, is a 2nd-level spell on the cleric list for a blue dragon to learn, and a cheap 1st-level bard scroll at 50 gp a pop. Outside of Core, it's also available at CL 1 from the beguiler and dread necromancer lists. Anyone in a position to threaten an ECL 11 party can easily afford to avoid pinging on Detect Evil

I keep forgetting Dragons are Sorcerer casters, but cheat and get access to, essentially, Favored Soul and Sorcerer mechanics at the same time. Well, Blues and Reds, anyway.

[ShurikVch]

Notes:

Dungeon #84 has the Winter Werewolf template (with Winter Wolf (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/winterWolf.htm) as "the base animal")

For a Half-Dragon: if you don't like the White Dragon, then Dragon #356 has LE Chromium Dragon

Also, in some adventure (can't find it right now) I seen such monster as Legendary Winter Wolf: it's Winter Wolf, but all relevant statistics are from the Legendary Wolf (Monster Manual II) - i. e. 14 HD, Str 25, etc...

[Carden-Gix'oth]

Notes:

Dungeon #84 has the Winter Werewolf template (with Winter Wolf (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/winterWolf.htm) as "the base animal")

For a Half-Dragon: if you don't like the White Dragon, then Dragon #356 has LE Chromium Dragon

Also, in some adventure (can't find it right now) I seen such monster as Legendary Winter Wolf: it's Winter Wolf, but all relevant statistics are from the Legendary Wolf (Monster Manual II) - i. e. 14 HD, Str 25, etc...

Darkhold is a bit too far south for a Winter Werewolf. Neverwinter, Luskan, or even near Waterdeep, I could see. But we're a bit east of Baldur's Gate. But I'll have to look into that for the future. Also, since one of my players is thinking of a caster, and may go Druid, it's good to know what all they can summon.


Also, it just occurred to me. Paragon (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/paragonCreature.htm) Wolves would be nasty bases for a Werewolf. CR +15, imagine a Paragon Werewolf Lord. CR 29 with nothing else on it. That would be a challenge for even a level 25 party.

[Fouredged Sword]

Your party is level 11. CR 3 mooks are not even going to be speedbumps. Fielding them in enough numbers to make a challenge is going to be a nightmare that grinds combat to a stop.

I am going to suggest a Werewolf Mob. It's a CR 8 gargantuan swarm with 30 HD. It shrugs off spells with save and HP damage like nobody's business and
acts as a great distraction for a competent villain.

[Carden-Gix'oth]

Your party is level 11. CR 3 mooks are not even going to be speedbumps. Fielding them in enough numbers to make a challenge is going to be a nightmare that grinds combat to a stop.

I am going to suggest a Werewolf Mob. It's a CR 8 gargantuan swarm with 30 HD. It shrugs off spells with save and HP damage like nobody's business and
acts as a great distraction for a competent villain.

A few of them are Half-Dragons, but they're not meant to be fought. The Paladin knows these people. They're his childhood neighbors. He can fight them, sure. But he'd be killing innocents infected with the Lycanthrope curse. Well, some innocents. Not every werewolf is going to be reluctant. For every 10 werewolves I have made up and named and all of it, only 2 are Evil, or Cult sympathizers. Some are his neighbors, and some of them are villagers from the (relatively) nearby villages. This isn't meant to be a huge ass fight, though it can devolve into one if the players aren't careful